A charity has demanded better safeguards for people with dementia after it uncovered widescale financial abuse by cold callers, door-to-door salesmen and carers. People with the condition are being cheated out of at least £100 million a year through scams, mis-selling and theft, according to research by the Alzheimer’s Society. It found that 112,500 people with dementia — 15 per cent of all sufferers — have been victims of financial fraud or abuse.

The society, one of the charities in this year’s Times Christmas Appeal, warns that the figure is likely to be higher in reality. Many people with dementia are unable